Faults
by Cade Welentine
Summary: A series of drabbles about the spellers thinking about their faults or reasons for elimination. I'm going to go in order of their eliminations, so Chip, Leaf, Marcy, Logainne and Olive. Enjoy!
1. Chip Tolentino

**Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm home sick...You know, I do a lot of my writing when I'm home sick. Wierd. Anyways, this is just something I came up with after seeing Spelling Bee. I was thinking a lot about what Chip might've been thinking after he got eliminated, well, aside from the 'It's not fair, I won last year!' that we all know. It spiraled into the other characters thinking about their reasons for eliminations. It probably isn't very good, but I thought it was worth a try. Enjoy, happy R-E-A-D-I-N-G!**

**-Cade**

Chip Tolentino

_Tittup: noun; an exaggerated prancing, bouncing movement or manner of moving._

Chip studied that word nightly, reviewing it over and over in his head. It was such an easy word. Such a simple word. And yet, he had been eliminated for misspelling it. So he reviewed, and reviewed it until he had the definition memorized by heart. If anyone had ever gone up to Chip and asked him what tittup meant, he could simply recite the exact dictionary definition, because he obsessed over it. Because he had lost over it.

He hadn't lost because he didn't know the word. He _knew _the word. He had just been distracted. The fact that he had been distracted bothered him but the thing that had distracted him didn't bother him at all. The thing that had distracted him was beautiful and lovely and...he couldn't find the words. The thing that had distracted him wasn't a thing, it was a she.

Marigold Coneybear.

Coneybear.

Leaf Coneybear. The name that caused Chip's fists to clench. If Leaf hadn't been there, Marigold wouldn't have been there and Chip wouldn't have gotten distracted. If he hadn't gotten distracted, he would've spelled tittup correctly. If he had spelled tittup correctly, he might've won. If had had won, he would've been able to go to nationals in DC. If he had made it to nationals, he might've won. If he had won, he'd be a national champion.

But, Leaf had shown up and Marigold had shown up with him. Marigold, the prettiest girl in the world. Reddish ringlets-similar to the color of Leaf's hair- crowned her head, framing her pale, porcelain like face. Her eyes, a warm brown, sparkled when she smiled. Chip was entranced, dazed by her beauty. And it was all he could focus on, much to his dismay. Well, it was much to his dismay once it was his turn to spell, before that, he was more than happy to fantasize about her.

It wasn't Leaf's fault he had a pretty sister, Chip had decided after toying with the idea that Leaf brought her along as sabotage, she was just his older sister, that was all. Leaf probably didn't even notice her beauty. He barely noticed the world outside his arm span, so it was unlikely that he saw Marigold for what she was.

Chip did.

Unfortunately.

And so, he studied tittup nightly, hoping to drill it into his brain so that no matter how distracted his was or what distacted him, he'd be able to spell it.

_Tittup-noun; an exaggerated prancing, bouncing movement or manner of moving._


	2. Leaf Coneybear

Leaf Coneybear

_Chinchilla- noun; __a small,__South American rodent, Chinchilla laniger, raised for its soft, silvery gray fur: now rare in the wild. _

Leaf Coneybear had found it funny that he kept getting South American rodents as words in the bee. Leaf found an awful lot of things funny, even if they weren't to anyone else. This annoyed his siblings in ways Leaf couldn't understand. He just really enjoyed life, what was wrong with that?

Almost everything Leaf did annoyed his family, whether it was his cape or finger puppet or he simply asked a question. The only thing that didn't annoy them was when he sat quietly in the corner.

His family hadn't been surprised when he lost the bee. He hadn't won his district bee, he had come in third. Did anyone remember third? He came in fifth at the Putnam County Bee. No one remembered fifth. His family had expected him to lose, they had no faith in him. They knew from the start that he wouldn't make it. In fact, it surprised them when he had gotten his first word-capybara- and it surprised even more when he got his second word-acouchi-Leaf could tell.

Leaf tried his best to be lovable and tolerable for his family, but he couldn't help doing or saying something quirky occasionally. It was who he was.

His mother had started making him wear his helmet when he was seven, after she had taken him to some specialist. The specialist had figured that a helmet would keep Leaf-who was rather klutzy- from hurting himself too severely. Leaf liked it, it was brightly colored and matched his cape.

His cape. It was probably one of his prized possesions. He wore it everywhere and made matching ones for his cats. One of his older brothers, Landscape, always called him 'Super Leaf' and teased him tirelessly for wearing the cape. Landscape was on the meaner side of his sibling spectrum. Marigold was on the nicer side.

Leaf sometimes wondered-during one of his moments of adult-like seriousness and clarity-if he had lost due to his lack of support from his family. He pondered whether if his family had believed in him, encouraged him, would he have possibly won? If he had known that his family thought he could succeed, would he have succeeded?

_Chinchilla- noun; __a small,__South American rodent, Chinchilla laniger, raised for its soft, silvery gray fur: now rare in the wild. _


	3. Marcy Park

Marcy Park

_Camouflage: noun; concealment by some means that alters or obscures the appearance._

Marcy's parents were-to say the least- shocked that she had blown such an easy word, and was _happy _about it. Her mother had first taken her to a doctor, to make sure she hadn't come down with a horrible disease. When that was ruled out, she took Marcy to a psychologist to see if she had lost her mind. That was ruled out as well. No one could find a satisfactory way to tell Ms. Park that her daughter simply blew the word on purpose.

Marcy's mother would randomly tell her to spell camouflage. Sometimes Marcy would spell it correctly, and sometimes she would spell it wrong, just to see her mother's reaction.

Her over-perfectionism had made her lose. And Marcy was suddenly okay with losing. In fact, not living up to expectations made her happy. Perfectionism was a disease, and she had finally found her cure.

Marcy had even stopped participating half of her extracurriculars. Well, she hadn't stopped officially, and her mother didn't officially tell her she could stop taking them. She just didn't go. She'd tell her mother that she was going to whatever activity it was time for and then would just go and hang out at the library, using the computer to instant message her friends.

_Friends._

She had made actual friends one she stopped being such an over achiever. It was amazing. They talked about boys they liked and teachers that they hated. Sometimes, they'd make plans to go to the movies during one of Marcy's hiding sessions. They had good-naturedly laughed at Marcy's amazement the first time they went. She had never been in a movie theatre before, her mother considered them a frivolous waste of time, time that could be spent studying spelling words or Latin or college level algebra or something else that was insanely would rather see movies and eat popcorn and gummy bears with her friends than do any of her mother's approved activities. She just had to camouflage this fact, and she did it by lying. Fortunately for Marcy, her mother had signed her up for acting classes, so Marcy was a very good liar. She could fight her mother's power using the tools that her mother had given her.

Perfectionism was Marcy's disease, a disease caused by her mother, a disease that had caused her to throw the bee, and she had finally found her cure.

_Camouflage: noun; concealment by some means that alters or obscures the appearance._


	4. Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre

**Author's Note: Hey, it's me! Well, who else would it be? I've noticed that all my Spelling Bee stories have the same sad tone to them. I'll try to write a happy one soon, it's just that I do a lot of thinking about the characters problems and home lives, and they start to seem pretty messed up, and my writing reflects them. Anyways, here's Logainne thinking about her fault. Well, most of them aren't thinking about an internal fault, they're thinking more about an external fault. Augh! Why am I dissecting my own writing? I'm going to stop now, and you can read the story. Enjoy, happy R-E-A-D-I-N-G!**

Logainne SchwartzandGrubenierre

_Vug: noun; a small cavity in a rock or vein, often lined with crystals._

Logainne always felt torn between being the champion that Carl Dad knew she could be and being the princess that Dan Dad thought she was. She wanted to win, she liked winning, but she also liked being pampered and spoiled, which happened more when Carl Dad was drilling into her about losing.

She had wanted to win the county bee, but Carl Dad's voice had popped into her head, reminding her that words weren't always as simple as they sounded. She had over complicated 'vug' and ended up losing by spelling it, 'vugghe'. Carl Dad still hadn't let her live it down. Dan Dad had more than made up for that in cupcakes and movies and new clothes.

This had always made Logainne confused. Was losing a bad thing, or a good thing? She hated letting Carl Dad down, but it had such great rewards from Dan Dad.

Carl Dad. He knew the worst of the world, but he also knew that best. He knew that not everything was perfect, but he knew somethings could be, and he pushed Logainne to be. He tried to toughen her up for the harsh world, and tried to accept nothing less than perfect. Logainne tried, she did.

Dan Dad. He knew everything about Logainne. He knew her limits, the same limits his partner tried to push and break. Dan had a strange second sense that allowed him to tell when his daughter needed a break and would act appropriately toward that need.

Logainne loved both her dads. They both loved her. They just each loved her differently.

Carl Dad pushed her to reveal the beautiful, powerful, intelligent girl within.

Dan Dad pampered her to coax the beautiful, powerful, intellegent girl out.

Logainne knew that she could get that girl to come out whenever she wanted, she just wasn't ready yet. Letting that girl out meant meeting her birth mother, which was something she wasn't ready to do.

Letting that girl out might mean losing Dan Dad's pampering.

Letting that girl out might mean losing Carl Dad's pushing.

She couldn't let go of either of those.

But, had she lost because of those?

Had Carl Dad pushing her to be the best at everything caused her to lose at something? Had Dan Dad coddling her caused her to lose? Had knowing that she'd gain something by losing, made her lose? Had the subconcious fear of exposing that girl, or even just a slight bit of that girl, caused her to lose? She would probably never know.

_Vug: noun; a small cavity in a rock or vein, often lined with crystals._


	5. Olive Ostrovsky

**Author's Note: Hola! I know it's been a while, but I recently saw "Spelling Bee" again and I figured I owed it to you guys to update this with it's last chapter/drabble type thing. I hope you enjoy. Happy R-E-A-D-I-N-G!**

Olive Ostrovsky

_Elanguescence: noun; the soul's gradual loss of its powers._

Olive wasn't disappointed that she lost the bee. At least, not as disappointed as she thought she would be. Of course, as soon as she got home, she had looked up "elanguescence" in her dictionary. She had giggled at the fact that she had lost the bee on a word about loss.

"Besides," Olive had told herself, "You made a friend." And she had. She and William had been studying for nationals together, and it was great fun. They would laugh over the sillier words, or even sillier mistakes.

Olive knew that she had it much better than some of the other losers of the bee. She had heard rumors of things that had happened to them. Chip Tolentino, for example, had become obsessed with his losing word- tittup- and studied it constantly. However, aside from this, Olive couldn't think of a non-dirty reason for a fourteen year old boy to be obsessed with that word. Or, Miss Marcy Park, whose parents had taken her to bunches of doctors after she had blown "camouflage".

Olive's life had only really changed for the better. Her father continued to ignore her, focusing more on his job. Sometimes, late at night, Olive would lay awake and wonder what the outcome of the bee would have been had her father come to see her. But, she'd always tell herself that it didn't matter. She was fairly happy now. She had William and the others, so what did any of it matter?

_Elanguescence: noun; the soul's gradual loss of its powers._


End file.
